I was thinking about this after my last post. History is very much a reflection of the time and place it's written. And I think it's fair to say there are competing visions of American history at the moment--the more exclusionary White-focused version being pushed by the Republicans, and a more inclusive and perhaps less forgiving version from the left. The right-wing effort seems like a somewhat desperate effort to hang on to a certain vision of American and its past, while the left-wing version tends to focus on the sins that have been glossed over probably since the beginning of the nation.
Now earlier I talked about my own heritage, and my struggles to reconcile my various feelings about all of it. Were my ancestors monsters? How should I think of them? And what of the justifications, glorifications, and apologia for the Confederacy that still surround me in my life as a White Southerner?
And I don't think the answer is to hide from the history--from slavery to the Civil War to the horrors committed by Southerners during Reconstruction, poll taxes, lynchings, the Tulsa Massacre, segregation, etc. It's much better to face it and deal with it than to pretend it didn't happen or that it wasn't really that bad.
But I think it's also worth acknowledging that there wasn't necessarily anything congenitally evil about the people who did these bad things. Taken as a group, White Southerners were pretty much like anybody else--but they were born White Southerners in a time of slavery. In many ways most were likely decent or even good people--loving spouses and parents, caring children and grandchildren, hard workers and loyal friends. But that in no way excuses their participation in the institution of slavery or their fighting to prolong it, and it does not justify the glorification of the soldiers and generals, does not justify the lies and excuses in the history books.
And the racism that followed--still follows, all this time later--in the wake of that war is inexcusable. It won't instantaneously vanish (unless we do), and the only way I know to deal with it is to actually reckon with it. Look at the words and deeds that led us here, celebrate the good and try to fix what needs fixing. It sounds simple--because I'm writing a forum post & not a book--but it isn't.
I think part of the revisionist history push on the right is from people who really don't want to deal with this stuff--don't want to admit their country's flaws, don't want to look at the horrors committed, don't want to consider that their own actions and words, or the policies they support, might in fact be hurtful to others. Confederate statues may not seem like a big deal at all if you're white, but if you're Black you might see those statues as an ever-present glorification of the enslavement of African-Americans--and when those statues are on government property, it's bound to make you wonder if said government really has your best interests at heart.
**This post is already way too long, so I'm stopping now.
